Ubiquitous Frida

The city of San Miguel has become over-saturated with tourist art by artists who cater to the tourist trade. Many of centro’s galleries are overflowing with impressionistic views of city streets and landmarks, so much so that my walks are often spoiled by the unchecked proliferation of these works. The eyes grow tired of them, and it’s gotten to the point where I can’t look into a shop window or read a restaurant menu without being confronted by them.  I can hardly tell them apart – they all look so tediously the same. Sometimes they strike me as having been produced by the same artists, and often I muse that they have been cranked out by gnomes with over-active hormones working at a conveyer belt in a secret factory-like studio driven on by a demonic overseer wielding a cat-o’-nine-tails.

Without a doubt, the chief icons of the city are the Parroquia (the cathedral made of pink granite in the principal square and looking like a Gaudi gone a little conservative), and Frida Kahlo.

Painted and photographed images of the Parroquia show up everywhere, and although the cathedral is an amazingly complex and beautiful work of architecture deserving our reverence, it is and should remain a cherished symbol that should not be overly reproduced. As Mark Twain said, familiarity breeds contempt.

Frida Kahlo is the undisputed queen of this town. Her image is exploited endlessly and nauseatingly by artists of every stripe. Her portraits appear in the lowliest places among the most vulgar of venues, on handbags, tote bags, shopping bags, and bagatelles. And now -- most deplorably -- on a six pack of beer! Commercialism gone mad!  What next, Frida Fries at McDonald's? ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! THIS FRIDA FRENZY MUST STOP!

It’s high time for the artists of San Miguel to place a moratorium on the production of these images. Do so voluntarily, dear artists, before the forces of good taste rise up and destroy them!

FRIDA
by A. S. Maulucci

She suffered greatly,
there is no doubt,
and out of this suffering
came her art.

Much of it gruesome,
some of it grotesque,
but in the best,
a beauty of a brutal kind.

Perhaps we’ll find no word for it
except to say she endured.
Somehow, making portraits of herself
helped her soul grow wings.

Painting with blood knit her spirit,
nurtured it like a tree,
and gave her a handhold
as she crawled through days of pain.

In her pictures we can hear a voice that sings,
not like an angel but a wounded child,
a voice that often cracks, gasps, croaks
with agony but never wails or whines,
endures each hammer stroke
with head held high.

Her soul is tremulous like a violin,
and each brush stroke plays a note
with dignity and with terrible force
as if suffering were the natural course
for every woman
who still has the keeping of her heart.

Nothing strangled in her jangled pain,
nothing tangled, nothing mangled,
it is simple pain, pure and plain,
splattered with grace upon a canvas
for all who have the courage
to look upon her nakedness
without shame.

San Miguel and the Global Art Market

According to a story in the New York Times (22 August 2013), the art market is being globalized. Dealers must now travel to far-flung art fairs in cities such as Hong Kong, Miami, and Basel, Switzerland in order to compete and sell art work to the richest collectors. Expenses for this approach to selling art can add up to the hundreds of thousands. Cost of most booths begins at $15,000 and can go as high as $100,000 for a large space. Mid-sized galleries are being forced to ante-up or close up shop, which many have done already, and the rate of attrition is alarmingly high. The Times article states that “the number of galleries in the big art districts has declined in the past few years — galleries in West Chelsea have fallen to 282 from a peak of 364 in 2007; those in SoHo have dropped to 87 from 337 in 1995.”

 

I wonder, will San Miguel be seen globally as an art fair destination? Perhaps it will, but not in the strictest sense. With most of our galleries located in centro and with Fabrica Aurora as an anchor, the city itself might be perceived as a kind of open art fair if promoted in the right way.

 

On the other hand, San Miguel might be overlooked by high-end collectors for the simple reason that we are not cutting edge enough, that is, we do not offer the glamour and excitement of big-city art fairs.

 

I’m not advocating for a gliztier approach to selling art in San Miguel, as I prefer the more relaxed method of individual gallery sales. However, if the future of selling art to high-end buyers is indeed the art fair model, then we must make adjustsments to our city’s image in order to put ourselves on the global art map and attract more affluent collectors.

Here’s a link to the NYT article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/arts/for-art-dealers-a-new-life-on-the-fair-circuit.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hp

EXPOSED

In general terms, the art of San Miguel can be categorized as either professional or non-professional, and a good deal of the art that is shown in San Miguel by non-professional artists is simply not ready to be exhibited in public. The quality is sorely lacking. It does not meet the standards of what any reasonable person would consider acceptable. When I walk about town and see inferior work I ask myself, as would anyone, why is this person putting their art work on public display? What motivates them? Sheer egotism? An overwhelming need to see their name in print? Exposure? Indeed, this is not the right kind of exposure. I feel for them, for making themselves so vulnerable. They’ve exposed themselves to ridicule. People wouldn’t say it out loud, because no one wants to say anything negative, but you can bet that people are thinking it. And like a rotten apple it leaves a bad taste in the mouth, and in a far-reaching way it damages the person’s name and reputation, and it ever-so-slightly tarnishes the reputation of San Miguel as a center for art of the hightest calibre. And when enough people add just a little to the negative, it grows and gathers momentum. After all, we do want San Miguel to be known as a world-class home for great art. So, dear non-professional artist, please think twice and make sure your work is ready before you hang it up on the walls of a cafe, store, or any other venue. It’s commendable that you are opening up your creativity, but you need to work harder to make your art better before you give it a public showing.

By Way of an Introduction

The opinions, impressions, and remarks expressed here are mine, and mine only. They are the opinions of a mostly self-taught artist who has traveled widely and has been living in the city of San Miguel de Allende, state of Guanajuato, Mexico, since 2008. That’s 5 years now. Plus one year in the extraordinary city of Zacatecas.

 

My opinions are sure to ruffle some feathers. That’s okay with me. Ruffling is better than stroking into self-contentment when it comes art. You don’t have to read my comments if they upset you. They are sure to be strongly tilted towards my personal interests. I offer no apologies on that score.

 

I’ve studied art history in college and have continued to study it on my own, rather intensely, since I took up painting again after a hiatus of several decades during which time I wrote a lot of fiction and poetry, got a master’s from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, taught at the college level for 20 years, and published 15 books. At the University of Hartford, I was privileged to be one of a team of three professors teaching a freshman cross-curriculum course in the Italian Renaissance. That was an eye-opener. Later on, I was an adjunct professor at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and had many enlightening discussions with my gifted colleagues on the subject of art. When I lived in New Haven, I attended the Yale School of Art by osmosis, so to speak, but that’s another story.

 

So I am pretty well versed in the academic viewpoint of what makes art great. I have also been a keen observer of the art of my contemporaries as displayed in galleries and museums but also in private studios and homes. In short, I am a passionate partaker of visual art. You might say I feast on it rather indiscriminately. But then, I reflect, digest, and reject what I believe is inauthentic art (I shall have more to say on that particular subject), art of poor or mediocre quality, or art that is just plain boring, bad, or trite.

 

The most urgent and compelling question for me is, Why has contemporary art become so fixated on technique? Why has mechanical skill become more important than the artist’s vision, soulfulness, and expressiveness? A virtuoso violinist or pianist who has perfect technique but lacks soul and passion would not move the listener. Actors who have mastered every nuance of the Shakespearean method as taught by the National Theatre in England leave me cold. It is the same with art.

 

Please allow me to state the obvious: There is a good deal of excellent art in San Miguel. But there is also a lot of dubious art, art of questionable value. I hope to comment on both. I will NOT be offering critiques or reviews, per se, just comments which may be off the mark (or the wall) at times, but I hope will mostly strike the right note. You, the reader, may take them for what you think they are worth. And please keep in mind that this is a casual blog, not some formal essay.

 

The issue that I find most compelling is this: There is far too much indiscriminate enthusiasm, or HYPE, for the art of San Miguel, and I hope to put all of the ballyhoo into some sort of personal perspective. I like to think of myself as the voice of insight, balance, and moderation.

 

I’ve posted some of my own work here. You can see more of it at:http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/anthony-maulucci.html